The stripped down old time style of this truly outstanding folk artist has been dropping the jaws of critics and fans across the country. On this 1998 sophomore effort, she further explores American traditional music while indulging in some powerful songwriting, employing a pristine presentation which is sure to move her one step closer to legendary status. The tracks chronicle and explore the experiences of poor rural white folks with
Whiskey Girl, Winter's Come & Gone, and
Miner's Refrain. This staff favorite will move you with the brilliance of her simplicity."
Hell Among the Yearlings is the second album by Gillian Welch, released in 1998. All the songs on the album are written by Welch and David Rawlings.
"Hell Among the Yearlings" is a fiddle instrumental from the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection performed by Seth Mize in Arkansas. No recording date is given, but other songs in the collection were recorded in the early 1960's.
Charts
References
Category:1998 albums
Category:Gillian Welch albums
Category:Albums produced by T-Bone Burnett
This text has been derived from Hell Among the Yearlings on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0Artist/Band Information
Gillian Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms".
Welch and Rawlings have released four critically acclaimed albums. Their 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time (The Revelator), received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Their most recent album, Soul Journey (2003), introduces electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work.
Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, a platinum album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Welch has collaborated and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, and The Decemberists. Welch and Rawlings perform at many music festivals.
Early life
GillianPronounced with a hard Howard Welch was born on October 2, 1967 in New York City, and was adopted by Ken and Mitzie Welch, comedy and music entertainers. Her biological mother was a freshman in college, and her father was a musician visiting New York City. Welch has speculated that her biological father could have been one of her favorite musicians, and she later discovered from her adoptive parents that he was a drummer. Alec Wilkinson of The New Yorker stated that "from an address they had been given, it appeared that her mother ... may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina". When Welch was three, her adoptive parents moved to Los Angeles to write music for The Carol Burnett Show. They also appeared on The Tonight Show.
As a youngster, Welch was introduced to the music of American folk singers Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. She performed folk songs with her peers at the Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles. Welch later attended Crossroads School, a high school in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, a local television program featured her as a student who "excelled at everything she did".
When a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Welch played bass in a goth band, and drums in a psychedelic surf band. In college, a roommate played an album by the bluegrass band The Stanley Brothers, and she had an epiphany:
The first song came on and I just stood up and I kind of walked into the other room as if I was in a tractor beam and stood there in front of the stereo. It was just as powerful as the electric stuff, and it was songs I'd grown up singing. All of a sudden I'd found my music.
After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in photography, Welch attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in songwriting. During her two years studying at Berklee, Welch gained confidence as a performer: "You had to. In every class, you had to do things in front of about twenty people." Welch met her music partner David Rawlings at a successful audition for Berklee's only country band.
Career
Gillian Smile.jpgrightthumbalt=A man with his head down playing a guitar with a smiling Welch also playing guitar on stage. Both play in front of microphones.Rawlings and Welch performing in Seattle in 2009
Upon finishing college in 1992, Welch and Rawlings moved to Nashville, Tennessee. She recalled, "I looked at my record collection and saw that all the music I loved had been made in Nashville—Bill Monroe, Dylan, the Stanley Brothers, Neil Young—so I moved there. Not ever thinking I was thirty years too late." Rawlings soon followed. In Nashville, after singing "Long Black Veil", the two first realized that their voices harmonized well and they started to perform as a duet. They never considered using a working name, so the duo were simply billed as "Gillian Welch". A year after moving to Nashville, Welch found a manager, Denise Stiff, who already managed Alison Krauss. Both Welch and Stiff ignored frequent advice that Welch should stop playing with Rawlings and join a band. They eventually signed a recording contract with Almo Sounds. Following a performance opening for Peter Rowan at the Station Inn, producer T-Bone Burnett expressed interest in recording an album. Burnett did not plan to disturb Welch's and Rawlings' preference for minimal instrumentation, and Welch agreed to take him on as a producer.
Revival
For the recording sessions of Welch's debut, Revival, Burnett wanted to recapture the bare sound of Welch's live performance. Welch recalled, "That first week was really intense. It was just T-Bone, the engineer, and Dave and myself. We got so inside our little world. There was very little distance between our singing and playing. The sound was very immediate. It was so light and small." Later, they recorded several more songs and played with an expanded group of musicians; guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Burton, bassist Roy Huskey, Jr., and veteran session drummers Jim Keltner, and Buddy Harman.
The album was released in April 1996 to positive reviews. Mark Deming of Allmusic called it a "superb debut" and wrote, "Welch's debts to artists of the past are obvious and clearly acknowledged, but there's a maturity, intelligence, and keen eye for detail in her songs you wouldn't expect from someone simply trying to ape the Carter Family." Bill Friskics-Warren of No Depression praised the album as "breathtakingly austere evocations of rural culture". The Chicago Daily Heralds Mark Guarino observed that Revival was "cheered and scrutinized as a staunch revivalist of Depression-era music only because her originals sounded so much like that era." He attributed this to the biblical imagery of the lyrics, Burnett's threadbare production, and the plainly-sung bleakness in Welch's vocals. Ann Powers of Rolling Stone gave Revival a lukewarm review and criticized Welch for not singing of her own experiences, and "manufacturing emotion." Robert Christgau echoed Powers: Welch "just doesn't have the voice, eye, or way with words to bring her simulation off." Revival was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Hell Among The Yearlings
The duo's 1998 Hell Among the Yearlings continued the rustic and dark themes; the songs' subject matter varies from a female character killing a rapist, a mining accident, a murder ballad, and an ode to morphine before death. Like Revival, Hell Among The Yearlings featured a sparse style that focused on Rawlings and Welch's voices and guitars.
Gillian Welch 2007.jpgleftthumbalt=Welch singing and playing guitar on stage, wearing a black dress.Gillian Welch performing at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz Fest
The album also received favorable reviews. Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer observed that Welch "inhabits a role so completely, the fiction separating character and audience disappears". Thom Owens (Allmusic) stated that the album "lacks some of the focus" of Revival, but is "a thoroughly satisfying second album" and proof that her debut was not a fluke. No Depressions Farnum Brown commended the live and "immediate feel" of the album, Welch's clawhammer banjo, and Rawlings' harmonies. Similar to Revival, Welch was praised for reflecting influences such as the Stanley Brothers, but still managing to create an original sound, while Chris Herrington from Minneapolis's City Pages criticized the songs' lack of authenticity. He wrote "Welch doesn't write folk songs; she writes folk songs about writing folk songs."
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
ACL 2008 - Gillian Welch & Alison Krauss.jpgrightthumbalt=A man and two women crowded around a microphone and singing. The man is on the left and wearing a dark blue suit and a white cowboy hat. Welch, in the middle, is wearing a black dress, and the woman on the right is wearing a green dress.David Rawlings, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss performing at the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival
Welch sang two songs and served as an associate producer for the Burnett-produced soundtrack to the 2000 film of the same name. She shared vocals with Alison Krauss on a rendition of the gospel song "I'll Fly Away." Dave McKenna of The Washington Post praised their version: the singers "soar together." Burnett and Welch wrote additional lyrics for the song "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," sung by Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Krauss. The song is an elaboration of an old Mississippi tune discovered by Alan Lomax, and was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The platinum album won the 2002 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The surprise success of the soundtrack gave Welch a career boost. Welch also made a cameo appearance in the film.
Time (The Revelator)
When Universal Music Group purchased Almo Sounds, Welch began her own independent label, Acony Records (named for the Appalachian wildflower, Acony Bell, subject of the song "Acony Bell" on Revival). Rawlings produced the first release on Welch's new label, the 2001 album Time (The Revelator). All but one song on the album was recorded in the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville. "I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll" was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium in the recording sessions for the concert film Down from the Mountain.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings @ Newport Folk Festival 2009.jpgleftthumbalt=A slender, bearded, middle-aged man in a blue shirt and jeans and Welch in a black dress playing guitar on stage. Welch is singing.David Rawlings and Gillian Welch performing at the 2009 Newport Folk Festival
Welch has said the album is about American history, rock 'n' roll, and country music. There are songs about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Titanic Disaster, John Henry, and Elvis Presley. Time continues Welch and Rawlings' style of mellow and sparse arrangements. Welch explained, "As opposed to being little tiny folk songs or traditional songs, they're really tiny rock songs. They're just performed in this acoustic setting. In our heads we went electric without changing instruments."
Time (The Revelator) received extensive critical praise, most of which focused on the evolution of lyrics from mountain ballads. For Michael Shannon Friedman of The Charleston Gazette, "Welch's soul-piercing, backwoods quaver has always been a treasure, but on this record her songwriting is absolutely stunning." Critics compare the last track, the 15-minute "I Dream a Highway", to classics by Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Zac Johnson of Allmusic described I Dream... as akin to "sweetly dozing in the current like Huck and Jim's Mississippi River afternoons". No Depressions Grant Alden wrote, "Welch and Rawlings have gathered ... fragments from across the rich history of American music and reset them as small, subtle jewels adorning their own keenly observed, carefully constructed language." Time finished thirteenth in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz & Jop music critic poll. Time (The Revelator) appeared in best of decade lists of Rolling Stone, Paste, Uncut, The Irish Times, and the Ottawa Citizen. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bob Dylan's Love and Theft. Time peaked at #7 on the Billboard Independent Album chart.
The Revelator Collection DVD was released in 2002. It featured live performances and music videos of songs from Time, and some covers. The concert footage was filmed in 2001, and the music videos included Welch and Rawlings performing three songs at RCA Studio B. No Depressions Barry Mazor praised the DVD as an accompaniment for Time, calling it "one last exclamation point on that memorable and important project".
Soul Journey
For the 2003 release, Soul Journey, Welch and Rawlings explored new territory. Welch said: "I wanted to make it a happier record. Out of our four records, I thought this might be the one where you're driving down the road listening to it on a sunny summer day." Rawlings again produced the record. The album also reflected a change in the typically sparse instrumentation: Welch and Rawlings introduced a dobro, violin, electric bass and drums, and Welch later said, "Everything's not supposed to sound the same, you want it to reflect change and growth."
Justin Townes Earle and Gillian Welch.jpgleftupright=0.66thumbalt=A skinny man in a white shirt and burnt red pants on stage stares into the camera while Welch next to him in a white dress focuses on playing her guitar. The man looks to be in his 20s.Justin Townes Earle & Gillian Welch performing in 2009
In three songs of Soul Journey, for the first time Welch and Rawlings recorded their own versions of traditional folk songs. On the original compositions, Welch's lyrics are more autobiographical than previous albums.
The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic's Zac Johnson wrote that it was "too casual and off-the-cuff", but called it a "wonderful, dusty summertime front-porch album, full of whiskey drawls and sly smiles, floorboard stomps and screen-door creaks". Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone criticized the slower songs as stagnant, but complimented the upbeat songs. Soul Journey also garnered significant acclaim. John Harris of Mojo magazine described the album as "pretty much perfect", and Uncuts Barney Hoskyns favorably compared it to Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes. Will Hermes of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Welch has "never sounded deeper, realer , or sexier." Soul Journey peaked at #107 on the Billboard charts, and reached #3 for Independent Albums.
Dave Rawlings Machine
Welch and Rawlings continued their partnership in the band Dave Rawlings Machine. Welch co-wrote five of the songs with Rawlings, and provided guitar and harmony vocals. Andy Gill of The Independent described the 2009 debut album A Friend of a Friend as a "akin to one of Welch's albums, but with the balance of their harmonies swapped to favour Rawlings' voice". Although ostensibly Rawlings' first solo album, Alex Ramon of PopMatters noted the similarities to Welch albums. Paste Magazines Stephen Deusner praised A Friend of a Friend for incorporating "a wide swath of traditional American music," comments echoed by Rolling Stones Will Hermes and in the PopMatters piece.
Future release
In a 2007 feature in The Guardian, critic John Harris expressed frustration that there had not been a Gillian Welch release in four years. Creation Records founder Alan McGee showed optimism about Welch and Rawlings testing out some new songs while opening some concerts for Rilo Kiley, and wrote in a 2009 blog entry "the long gestation period signals nothing less than a perfect album". In 2009, Rawlings said that recording for the next Gillian Welch album has started, but did not give a release date.
Musical style
#0|897067|Thy Majestie
Thy Majestie is an Italian Power metal band that formed in 2000. Their music is typically cinematic, epic, symphonic, progressive and darker than typical power metal with symphonic influences. They have released four full-length albums.
Biography
Thymajestie2.jpgthumbleftGuitarist Simone Campione and Thy Majestie live at Fear Dark Festival, 2008.
The band was started by Giuseppe Bondì and Claudio Diprima with the desire to create their own music after playing in a cover band. Maurizio Malta, Giovanni Santini, Michele Cristofalo and Dario Grillo joined them to form Thy Majestie. After releasing Sword, Crown and Shields, a 3-track demo, Thy Majestie composed new material which was recorded in March 1999 titled Perpetual Glory. It was highly praised by Italian metal magazines and they were able to sign a contract with Scarlet Records. In March 2000 they began working on their debut album The Lasting Power which was finished in April 2000.
On September 2001 LIMB Music (who produced Rhapsody of Fire) took notice of Thy Majestie but could not sign a deal with them because they were already signed to Scarlet Music to record two albums. In January 2002 Thy Majestie was contacted by Thomas Youngblood to support him on his European tour with his band Kamelot but they could not afford travel expenses and had to record another album 2 months later.
In 2002, they released the album Hastings 1066 which is based on the Battle of Hastings.
In November 2003, vocalist Dario Grillo left the band to pursue a solo career (as leader of the band Platens). In December 2003, Gabriele Grilli (who has also played in Doomsword) joined as his replacement. But in October 2004 he left as well "due to personal reasons", one of them being the distance between Grilli's hometown, Varese, and Palermo, where the other members of the band live. One song was released with Gabriele on vocals, namely a demo version of The Siege of Paris, later to appear on the Jeanne d'Arc album. Shortly thereafter, Giulio Di Gregorio (also in Irencros) was announced as the new singer.
2005 saw the release of the third Thy Majestie album, Jeanne d'Arc, which is a concept album about the French heroine Jeanne d'Arc. The album was released through Scarlet Records. Its style has been compared to that of the Italian band Labyrinth.
The 3 of May 2005, Giulio Di Gregorio was expelled from the band due to his poor knowledge of the English language and his numerous health problems which kept him from performing live with the band. After a short period when USA-based singer Matt Aub (from Timelord) had been singing for the band, it was announced that Thy Majestie's first vocalist, Dario Grillo would be returning to the band. His return, however, caused the same problems experienced four years earlier and lead to a definitive separation. Dario Grillo was replaced by Fingerbang singer Dario Cascio. At the same time guitarist Giovanni Santini decided to leave the band and was replaced by Simone Campione. During the end of year 2007, the other founding member, Giuseppe Bondi, left Thy Majestie due to personal reasons.
A new keyboarder, Valerio Castorino, was taken in and the band signed with a new record label, Dark Balance Records. Thy Majestie performed at the Immortal Metal Fest in Finland on 19 April 2008 as well as at Fear Dark in Zwolle, the Netherlands on 24 May 2008 and in Stuttgart, Germany on 1 June 2008. The group released their latest album Dawn on 1 September 2008, which has been compared to the Swedish metal scene, namely Axenstar and Dragonland.
Valerio Castorino, who toured with Thy Majestie during their last gigs in Europe left the band because of private matters. Giuseppe Carrubba, who also plays with Inner Quest, an Italian Progressive metal band replaced him.
Discography
*Perpetual Glory (self-production, 1999)
1. Thy Majestie Theme/The Green Lands
2. Sword Of Justice
3. March Of The Damned
4. Under Siege
5. Durnovaria
6. Mystery Of Forest
7. Hywelbane
8. Treachery
9. Facing The Beast
10. Nymph's Recall
11. Time To Battle
*The Lasting Power (Scarlet Records, 2000)
1. Thy Majestie Theme
2. Wings Of Wind
3. March Of The Damned
4. Under Siege
5. Name Of Tragedy
6. Durnovaria
7. ...At The Village
8. Mystery Of Forest
9. Cruenta Pugna
10. The Green Lands
11. Sword Of Justice
12. Tears Of Sorrow
13. Treachery
14. Nymph's Recall
15. Time To Battle
*1066 (demo, 2001)
*Hastings 1066 (Scarlet Records, 2002)
1. Rerum Memoria
2. The King And The Warrior
3. Echoes Of War
4. The Sight Of Telham Hill
5. Incipit Bellum
6. The Scream Of Taillefer
7. Anger Of Fate
8. The Pride Of A Housecarl
9. Through The Bridge Of Spears
10. Demons On The Crown
*Jeanne d'Arc (Scarlet Records, 2005)
1. Revelations
2. Maiden Of Steel
3. The Chosen
4. Ride To Chinon
5. ...For Orleans
6. Up To The Battle!
7. March Of The Brave
8. The Rise Of A King
9. Siege Of Paris
10. Time To Die
11. Inquisition
12. The Trial
*Dawn (Dark Balance Records 2008)
1. As you Fall
2. M.A.D.
3. Dawn
4. The Hunt
5. The Legacy Suite
5a. Of Pain and Disgrace
5b. To an Endless Devotion
5c. Inferis Armata
5d. Two Minutes Hate
5e. The Legacy
6. Out the Edge
7. Day of the Changes
8. Through Heat and Fire
Line-up
* Giuseppe Carrubba - Keyboards (April 2009-)
* Dario D'Alessandro - Bass (1999-)
* Claudio Diprima - Drums (1998-)
* Simone Campione - Guitar (April 2007-)
* Alessio Taormina - Vocals (2010-)
Former members
* Dario Cascio - Vocals (2008-2010)
* Gabriele Grilli - Vocals (2003–2004)
* Michele Cristofalo - Bass (1998–1999)
* Giulio Di Gregorio - Vocals (2004- May 2006)
* Matt Aub - Vocals (May–September 2006)
* Giovanni Santini - Guitar (1998- April 2007)
* Dario Grillo - Vocals, acoustic guitars (1998–2003; September 2006- April 2007)
* Giuseppe Bondì - Keyboards (1998–2007)
* Maurizio Malta - Guitar (1998–2008)
* Valerio Castorino - Keyboards (November 2008-)
References
This text has been derived from Gillian Welch on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0
